The Effects of Salinity and Waterlogging on the Growth and Cation Uptake of Salt Marsh Plants

Abstract

SUMMARYFestuca rubra, Jfuncus gerardii, Armeria maritima, Plantago maritima. Aster tripolium, Triglochin maritima, Puccinellia maritima and Salicornia europaea from a salt marsh near Portaferry, County Down, were grown on drained and waterlogged salt marsh soils under saline and non-saline conditions. Shoot and root yields and the concentrations of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese and iron in the shoots were determined after a 2-month growing period. The tolerance of the plants to waterlogging and salinity differed in a way which was correlated with their position on the salt marsh ecotone.The growth of upper marsh species, but not that of lower marsh species, was strongly limited by hoth salinity and waterlogging. Only Salicornia europaea gave its maximum yield on the saline treatments and only Puccinellia maritima showed a preference for waterlogged soils. Reduced yields on the saline treatments were associated with large increases in shoot sodium concentrations but in general, salinity and waterlogging had little effect on shoot cation concentrations. It is suggested that factors other than the greater availibility of iron and manganese on araerobic salt marsh soils are involved in determining species distribution along the salt marsh ecotone.

The effect of NaCl on growth, dry matter allocation and ion uptake in salt marsh and inland populations of Armeria maritima

“…Such a sympatric evolution of salt-resistant populations along a salt gradient in the coastal marsh has been shown for other species (JeflFeries, 1980). The salt resistance of the salt-marsh ecotype of A. maritima, as presented in this paper and by Cooper (1982) and Rozema et al (1985), is intermediate between that of less salt-resistant salt marsh species and that of extreme halophytes like Salicornia europaea, Suaeda maritima and Triglochin maritima. This intermediate salt resistance is consistent with the natural occurrence of A. maritima in the middle marsh and on well drained sites of the lower marsh .…”

Salt marsh ecohydrological zonation due to heterogeneous vegetation–groundwater–surface water interactions

“…(3) Intertidal salt marshes exhibit pronounced vegetation zonation, with plant assemblages configured into visually obvious spatial patterns. This vegetation zonation is partially related to patterns of soil water availability or excess [Chapman, 1938a[Chapman, , 1938bMahall and Park, 1976b;Cooper, 1982;Pennings and Callaway, 1992;Silvestri et al, 2005;Varty and Zedler, 2008], among other causes including interspecific interactions and variations in nutrients, soils, salinity, tidal exposure, and disturbance [Bertness et al, 1992;Pennings and Callaway, 1992;Emery et al, 2001;Pennings et al, 2005;Forbes and Dunton, 2006]. Interestingly, these three features of salt marsh plant-water relations have not yet been combined nor integrated with physics-based models of intertidal hydrology.…”

Sensitivity to and requirement for iron in Plantago species

“…Temporal and spatial fluctuations in available Fe concentrations can also be expected to occur in the habitat of P. maritima. As an expression of its high flooding tolerance (Cooper, 1982 ;, this species often occurs at sites where high rainfall waterlogs soil for long periods. In contrast to P. coronopus, the seaward distribution of P. maritima is extended to the lower zones of salt marshes (Puccinellion maritimae).…”

“…Thus, despite the near-neutral soil reaction of its habitat, adaptation to high Fe availability by P. maritima can be expected. Although Fe concentration as a determinant for the vertical zonation of plants in salt marshes is a subject of some controversy (Adams, 1963 ;Cooper, 1982 ;, tolerance of high Fe concentrations is one of the requirements for species in lower-salt-marsh communities. Despite high variations in soluble Fe, suboptimal Fe availability in these sites seems to be less probable.…”